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Do you do lots of steel welding with your spoolgun, listen up.

01-11-2008, 10:54 AM

I use/abuse my spoolgun prob more than anyone here. Somedays i run 6 spools of wire thru it in both steel and alum. So the other day when i had the horse trailer job my spoolgun quit feeding alum wire. After pondering the problem and adjusting the tension screw it dawned on me, my drive wheels/rolls are shot from welding all that steel wire. Lucky me i had a spare set and went right back to welding. No problems now and it welded great. Just thought i would pass this on. So if i weld steel anymore i plan on using the old wheels...Bob

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Have never tried it. I have a miller matic pulser. The predecessor of the 350P I believe. Its like a MM210 but has pulse on the spool gun, both guns hooked up all the time.. Have never tried steel in it [spool gun]but was thinking on real thin stuff might work. Any thoughts?? I have a SP175 I keep .024" in for thin stuff, exhaust etc. But I have an extension for the spool gun.

Scott
HMW [Heavy Metal welding]

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Get a suitcase Bob, saves boatloads on wire cost. I use a Hefty or LN-25 hooked up to my EX300 (XM304 to you Miller guys) with 25lb spools of flux core (has the gas solenoid but I haven't used it for MIG yet) and get about 4 days per spool. Runs about $70.00 per spool. Makes that high dollar spool gun last a lot longer too.

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Thanks Jolly. I don't do that much steel welding to justisfy a suitcase but one would be nice. I don't buy any wire in 4" spools i have a pile of alum left over from my dads operation and my steel wire i wind my own from bigger spools, so its just a little time. But it is a good point. Thanks...Bob

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What is the setup you use for welding steel with your spoolgun. I have used mine for that in the past, but didn't like it too much. I tried it with F/C too, just seemed to run way too hot all the time. Mine is a 3035 that I ran on my MM185 and now use off of my trailblazer. I don't remember what the polarity was when I set it up for running mig and I tried it with both straight and reverse with the F/C, but don't remember which ran better now. I tend to just use stick on steel now, but would like to use the spoolgun again for the light gauge jobs.
Thanks

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Aa, is this all spray transfer, or can you short arc with it? My issue with welding steel was that I couldn't get it to run right as a short arc, and I was trying to weld .065 tubing. I got it done, but don't like having to move that fast.